Westover Senior Amy Tiong Named Gates Millennium Scholar

Middlebury, Connecticut – When the envelope from the Gates Millennium Scholars program arrived in the mail for Amy Tiong, a senior at Westover School, she was away on a college visit and her parents, Bee and Yueh Tiong, didn’t want to open it without her. And so, they waited until she returned to their Waterbury, Connecticut home.

The news was well worth the wait: the letter inside informed Ms. Tiong that she was one of this year’s 1,000 recipients of a Gates Millennium Scholarship.

Established in 1999, the Gates Millennium Scholars (GMS) Program selects talented students each year to receive a good-through-graduation scholarship to use at any college or university of their choice. “The goal of GMS is to promote academic excellence and to provide an opportunity for outstanding minority students with significant financial need to reach their highest potential,” according to the program’s website. Students named Gates Millennium Scholars not only receive funding through their undergraduate years, but graduate school funding is offered for students in certain areas of study. More than 50,000 students applied for the scholarships this year.

As part of the application process, Ms. Tiong had to write a series of eight essays. For one of them, Ms. Tiong was asked to write about obstacles she had to overcome. In that essay, she wrote about the challenges of being born with a cleft palate compounded by a hearing loss.

“Given my medical condition,” Ms. Tiong wrote, “early on in my life I was haunted by voices that doubted my potential to achieve. I saw only my setbacks. As I matured I realized in order to silence these voices, I had to overcome my self-pity and take action … I had to focus on my dreams and abilities rather than obstacles. This focus has led me to my passion for the world of performing and visual arts.”

At Westover, Ms. Tiong recounted in her essay, “I had the opportunity to contribute to 10 theater productions, five dance performances, 24 music concerts, and took on the responsibility as our school student videographer and photographer.” As a result of her efforts, Ms. Tiong noted, she received art scholarships to attend filmmaking classes at New York University’s Tisch School and last summer, a screenwriting program at Barnard College as the recipient of Westover’s Andy Award for arts students.

“However,” Ms. Tiong wrote, “my most cherished reward is the confidence that opened the door for me to mentor and share my story with kids battling their own inner voices of demise. My community service experiences [at Westover] … empowered me with newfound purpose to be even more vigilant to persevere and help others realize their values too … In some ironic way my hearing impairment has sharpened my eyes to see beyond and be concerned with things greater than myself.”

When she first came to Westover, Ms. Tiong said, “I knew I was a strong student and had always gotten decent grades, but I didn’t know that much about myself and what I wanted to do. What I love about Westover is that it gave me a chance to try to find out what I wanted to do, especially in the arts.” During her years at Westover, she was a member of the Glee Club (serving as Third Head during her senior year) and a member of the Overtones a capella group, took photography and filmmaking classes (this year her photography portfolio was awarded a Gold Key at the Connecticut Scholastic Art Award competition), and worked on the technical side of theater for dozens of performances. This year she also served on the Student Academic Committee as the Chinese Language representative and, during her junior year, was the Third Head of Dorcas, which organizes the Junior Class fair that raises funds for non-profit charities.

“Through all of those experiences I really discovered what I loved to do,” Ms. Tiong explained. 

Ms. Tiong was nominated for the Gates Millennium Scholarship by Corky Beaulieu, Westover’s college advisor, and was recommended by Marla Truini, Westover’s Director of the Theater Program. “I want to thank the faculty and staff at Westover for their endless support,” Ms. Tiong said.

This fall Ms. Tiong will attend NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she hopes to pursue studies in film and television, with a concentration in screenwriting.

Ms. Tiong is the sister of Alisa Tiong, a member of Westover’s Class of 2013 and Audrey Tiong, a member of Westover’s Class of 2006.

Westover is a selective boarding and day school in Middlebury, Connecticut, with 205 students in grades 9-12 from 17 states and 20 countries. The School offers its students more than 20 Advanced Placement courses as well as signature programs in science, engineering, art history, and music.